The news that the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura will perform has heightened anticipation for this year’s festival. (Image: Seoul Metropolitan Government)
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – On September 16, the nine-day Seoul International Community Orchestra Festival opens at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts located in Gwanghwamun Square.
All told, over 60 performances by amateur orchestras will be held.
The news that the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura will perform has heightened anticipation for this year’s festival.
The background story of the Recycled Orchestra is a striking one. Composed of youth from the Paraguayan town of Cateura, the orchestra earned its name when music teacher Favio Chávez began creating instruments using garbage collected from the local landfill. Soon, he was arming his students with violins, cellos and flutes and teaching them the works of European masters like Beethoven and Bach.
Chu Cheol Hwan, the director of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture expressed his hopes that the Cateura Orchestra’s performance would serve as a means for spreading awareness of the foundation’s ’1 Person 1 Instrument’ daily life and arts campaign, which kicked off earlier this year.
A screening of “Landfill Harmonic”, a documentary on the story of Chávez and the origins of the Recycled Orchestra, and a performance by the orchestra will serve as the opening ceremony of the festival.
Chu Cheol Hwan, the director of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture expressed his hopes that the Cateura Orchestra’s performance would serve as a means for spreading awareness of the foundation’s ’1 Person 1 Instrument’ daily life and arts campaign, which kicked off earlier this year.
Other orchestras slated to perform are the North Devon Sinfonia, winner of the BBC’s Amateur Orchestral Contest “All Together Now”, and the Federation of Japan Amateur Orchestras Corp. (JAO).
The Seoul International Community Orchestra, comprised of 63 members hailing from 29 countries that were selected from YouTube auditions, will also take the stage on September 23 and 24.
In addition, 45 Korean amateur orchestras will participate in a contest held during the festival.
S.B.W. (sbw266@koreabizwire.com)
